Sappho's Poetic Elysium

Sappho is perhaps one of the most profound poets to arise from Greek antiquity. She is remembered for being a “companion to Aphrodite” , yet also an unvirtuous woman, preoccupied with frivolous sexual proclivities. The subject matter of Sappho’s songs, including sensual portrayals of love, loss and womanhood, paints a picture not only of her context in Lesbos, but also of the lives of women in Greece. Her simultaneously praised and scrutinised reception surmounts her as one of the first writers willing to openly express the pleasures and pains of female sexuality in Achaean society.

Sappho’s poems are arguably the reason why Lesbos is associated with strong images of women, lesbianism and prostitution. Sappho’s works are grounded in a dreamy view of romance. Though she was married to wealthy businessman, Cercylas of Andros, she was often mocked for having the behaviours of courtesans, and for pursuing side-relationships with women.

Yet, while highlighted as a figure of disdain amongst ancient Grecian commentators, her subversion of the subservient roles of women in ancient Greece promoted an aspect of notoriety for her writing. Sappho rode a two-fold line between desirable and promiscuous which entertained her male contemporaries. Kate Gilhuly describes her representation on the comic stage as “an embodied, public, fetishized object of masculine desire”, further conveying that, “in order to be included among the ranks of other poets, to be known by many male poets, Sappho is produced as a promiscuous heterosexual, or courtesan type”.

Lesbos became attributed to women after it was mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, where Agamemnon offers seven desirable women from the city to persuade Achilles to continue fighting in the Trojan War. In the feminine discourse of Lesbos, beauty, sensuality, fertility and pleasure were prioritised. Sappho herself was thought to have a circle of friends (thiasos) who together practiced, “worship [of] Aphrodite and the Muses”. In many ways, Aphrodite was a patron-god of Lesbos for her gifts of sex, love and beauty, and is frequently mentioned by Sappho in poems such as Ode to Aphrodite.

Sappho embedded the roles of Achaean women in her poems, where their purpose is to love, rather than to fight. She completely embraced this archetype to the point of attracting criticism for indulging too much in love. Sappho depicted Helen of Troy as a victim of intense love in Fragment 16, while many others scrutanised her for causing the Trojan War. She also wrote openly on the pressures of motherhood, such as in her poem named after gods, Leto and Niobe. Sappho promoted women as multi-dimensional in a world where they were objects. She brought pride to the feminine arts that defined Lesbos.

Here is a selection of my favourite Sappho poems with accompanying artworks that I feel embody Sappho’s contemplative words.

Come to me here

from Crete (Frag. 2)

Come to me here from Crete,

To this holy temple, where

Your lovely apple grove stands,

And your altars that flicker

With incense.

And below the apple branches, cold

Clear water sounds, everything shadowed

By roses, and sleep that falls from

Bright shaking leaves.

And a pasture for horses blossoms

With the flowers of spring, and breezes

Are flowing here like honey:

Come to me here,

Here, Cyprian, delicately taking

Nectar in golden cups

Mixed with a festive joy,

And pour.

The Danaïdes, John William Waterhouse, 1906

Frag. 16

Some say a force of horsemen, some say infantry

and others say a fleet of ships is the loveliest

thing on the dark earth, but I say it is the one you love

It is altogether simple to make this understood

since she whose beauty outmatched all,

Helen, left her husband

a most noble man

And went sailing to Troy

Without a thought for her child and dear parents

[Love] made her completely insane

And led her astray

This reminds me of absent Anactoria

I would rather watch her lovely walk

and see the shining light of her face

than Lydian chariots followed by

infantrymen in arms

*Young Girl With a Sword*, Lucien- Victor Guirand de Scévola, early 20th Century

He is More Than a Hero

He is more than a hero

he is a god in my eyes —

the man who is allowed

to sit beside you — he

who listens intimately

to the sweet murmur of

your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own

heart beat fast. If I meet

you suddenly, I can't

speak — my tongue is broken;

a thin flame runs under

my skin; seeing nothing,

hearing only my own ears

drumming, I drip with sweat;

trembling shakes my body

and I turn paler than

dry grass. At such times

death isn't far from me.

Although they are

Although they are only breath,

words which I command

are immortal

Woman with wax tablets and stylus (so-called “Sappho”), Fresco on Gesso, date and painter unknown

And Their Feet Move

And their feet move

rhythmically, as tender

feet of Cretan girls

danced once around an

altar of love, crushing

a circle in the soft

smooth flowering grass

Florence Harrison, illustration from her book, ‘Elfin Song’, 1912

Without Warning

Without warning

as a whirlwind

swoops on an oak

Love shakes my heart

You May Forget But

You may forget but

let me tell you

this: someone in

some future time

will think of us

*The Three Fates* tapestry, unknown artist, early 16th Century

In the Spring Twilight

In the spring twilight

the full moon is shining:

Girls take their places

as though around an altar

*Dancing Fairies*, August Malmström, 1866

My Garden

I've a garden, a garden of dreams,

Where the cool breeze whispering sways

Softly the apple-sprays,

And from leaves that shimmer and quiver

Down on mine eyelids streams

A slumber-river.